Chapter 24:

Sorry I've been so bad at updating in the last few months. I've had a lot to do, and I know I promised this to people before now, but here it is?

Claire's POV:

The only word I have for being what I am now is…strange. There isn't any particular word that jumps out as a description word that explains just how different it is to what I was yesterday; yet there also isn't one saying how, in some ways, it feels almost exactly the same. Besides an ache in my mouth and chest that shouldn't be there, and a few other things, I feel how I felt as a human; I can think logically, know what I want and who I want, and even know who I should trust. The only difference that is making itself extremely obvious to me in the current moment is the strength of my senses.

Whilst facing Myrnin, I hear movement in the doorway, and as both Amelie's and Myrnin's attention seems to wholly be on me, I presume that they haven't heard the arrival—that, or they're choosing to ignore it. With the identity of the person, however, I'm guessing it's more the first option.

As soon as I mention Oliver's presence, both Amelie and Myrnin's attention diverts from me towards the doorway and the man who's the reason why I am currently lying on this (admittedly rather comfortable) sofa in Amelie's house, a different creature than what I was before.

The expression on Oliver's face changes from what seems like almost concern, to a mixture of fear and pain when his eyes meet Amelie's. She holds his gaze for a long moment, and my eyes dart between them to see the changing expressions on both of their faces. What was originally shock upon Amelie's face gradually changes to regret, and then finally anger. What she is angry at, I can only guess, but as her mouth opens, I know what she's going to do—and I have to stop her.

"No!" I call out just as Amelie's lips begin to form the word 'guards'. I have no idea what makes me call this out—he kidnapped me and tried to kill me; surely I should want him dead, or at least locked away for a long period of time—but, strangely, I feel nothing but sorrow for Oliver.

Amelie cocks an eyebrow as she turns to face me, the look on her face filled with surprise. "Claire, this man is the reason why you are what you currently are—I must point out hastily that you must feed within the next few minutes, or you shall perish—and yet you do not want him taken away?"

Her comment reminds me of the pain within my mouth and chest, sending stronger waves of pain throughout these regions of my body, and my hyper-sensitive nose begins to smell out blood. It doesn't take me long to find something; in Myrnin's left hand, there is a blood bag.

I turn to face him, suddenly feral in my actions as I snatch the bag from his hands, lifting it to my mouth; extra teeth have burst through my gums, though it seems painless to me, and they rip into the plastic bag to allow the salty liquid to flow into my mouth. It's cold and nothing like the blood Amelie gave me before, but as it spreads through my system, it quenches the pain within me, dulling it to a fraction of what it was before. It remains—perhaps I haven't had enough; perhaps this is how a vampire perpetually has its blood lust—but once the bag is empty in my hands, I feel as though I am completely myself once more.

For the first time since my eyes open, I properly look at Myrnin—and it breaks my heart at the same time as lifting it to elevations never previously seen. He's smiling as we look at one another, but I can see the tear tracks on his cheeks, clear as anything to me now, and there's something in his eyes that has left him even more haunted than before. He saved me, I know that without even asking, and I presume that seeing me like that…seeing me like that must have almost destroyed him. I know that if it had been the other way around, I wouldn't even be able to be conscious right now, let alone smile. He's been destroyed and revived within minutes, and there's nothing I can do to prevent him feeling like this. I've never felt so helpless when interacting with another.

"Claire?" Amelie's voice rouses me from Myrnin's eyes, and I turn my head slowly to look at her, my fingers snaking out to lightly hold Myrnin's hand at the same time. "Would you care to explain yourself?"

I hold her gaze for a moment before taking a few seconds to look at Oliver. Whilst I expected to absolutely despise him, I don't quite; I understand why he did it, even though it sickens me. His actions can be explained through one emotion, an emotion that had Amelie ready to rip the town apart.

"He only did what he did because he felt destroyed by the fact that Sam returned—something, I'd like to add, which was orchestrated by Myrnin, not Oliver—not because he hated me; in fact, he apologised more times than I probably heard," I reply slowly, taking my eyes from Oliver and instead staring at the wall. I may understand and have forgiven him, but that doesn't mean that I want to look at the man who very nearly took my life. "He didn't do it to destroy you; if he had wanted that, I think he would probably have managed to do it. It was an ultimatum…and with who he is, you should have known that he would carry it out. But that doesn't mean that he needs to die—or even be locked up. Just…just let him do what he wants."

The silence seems to grow to almost overwhelming levels as a response to my words, and I turn my head to face Myrnin once more. He's looking at me, his expression a mix of confusion and, strangely, understanding, something I never expected. He hates Oliver, especially after he kidnapped me; I would have thought that he would have wanted him staked immediately. But in the split second in which Myrnin looks away from me, he looks towards Sam, and I get the feeling that whatever makes me happy—or at least what I want now—he'll agree with.

Finally, someone speaks. "I agree with Claire." It's Myrnin, unsurprisingly, and I quickly flash him a smile. "It's her decision, after all, and if this is what she wants…then who are we to deny her it?"

Amelie flashes across the room to stand in front of me, something which makes me smile slightly wider; it's usually the other way around, yet for the current moment, she is standing before me. I suppose it's only for this one time, yet I'm not going to deny that I rather like it.

The expression on her face, however, I do not.

"He very nearly ensured that this conversation would be unable to happen," Amelie reminds me. "Remember that as you issue clemency; remember that he would quite happily have seen most people in this room destroyed."

I nod slowly, lifting my eyes to meet hers, determined that she won't change my mind. "It's what I want."

Amelie sighs, a sound I rarely hear issued from her lips, but inclines her head. Her attention switches from me to Oliver in the doorway, who still hasn't uttered a word. "You heard her, Oliver; you may leave. Though this is still my town—and if you are still here tomorrow, I shall have your head." A sadistic smile appears upon Amelie's lips. "The girl may be foolish enough to allow you to live, but I shall not have you within my town's limits. Is that clear?"

"Understood," is the first thing that Oliver says, and though I'm deliberately not looking at him now, I can feel his gaze hover over me for a moment or two. "I…I am sorry, if that makes any difference." He takes a step backwards, and the fact that I can hear something almost silent almost distracts me from hearing him mutter, "give my condolences to Samuel," before disappearing. What he means by this, I can only guess, but I'm pretty certain that it's his last—albeit subtle—dig towards Amelie before departing her town forever more.

With Oliver now gone from the room, Amelie moves towards myself and Myrnin, her expression colder than I would have expected. Her eyes lock upon our clasped hands for a fraction of a second, it then changing to the painting in the corner of the room. "Provided that you feel you are not going to commit any murders—it wouldn't do well for someone so pro-human rights to kill within an hour of turning—you are free to go. If you remain, I will not be responsible for my actions."

I swallow, unable to help the irrational wave of fear that rushes through me at her words; she isn't going to harm one of her kind. It scares me to admit that I am what she is, that there is no person in this room who has a beating heart; I am no longer human.

There is no going back.

Looking at Myrnin, I smile ever so slightly, motioning for him to help me up as I do so. He takes the hint, pulling me effortlessly to my feet, and for the first time, I realise just how easy it is to move him. Even I can move him now, a feat not even worthy of a few seconds' thinking time as a human, and in order to prove this to myself, I accidentally-on-purpose fall into him. Whilst he could probably still resist my attempts to push him, he doesn't, and so we therefore end up staggering a few feet in the direction of the door.

"Careful, little one," Myrnin murmurs in my ear, his words sending waves of a different kind through me. "You don't want to get hurt now, do you?"

I shake my head slowly, turning my head from Myrnin to quickly look at Sam and Amelie on the other side of the room. He's unconscious, as I expected he would be still, and she's sitting over him. If I had ever doubted that it's Amelie and Sam, not Amelie and Oliver, the sight of them together would have eradicated every doubt conceivable.

A wave of tiredness rushes over me as Myrnin and I begin to walk from the room, no words needed to signal our departure; he pulled lightly on my hand, and we walked together at a speed equivalent to a human sprint. It seems natural to move this fast, even with this fatigue that threatens to consume me. I don't really understand how I'm tired, but then again, I don't really comprehend anything in this new body and life—the only thing I know is that…is that the man who rescued me is the one I want.

At least, that's what I think I want now.

A familiar battered wooden door is at the end of the corridor, and it takes all my effort to stop myself flying towards it. I know that behind it lies the place I want the most.

Then it hits me: is that the Glass House and my friends, or the laboratory and Myrnin?

As we walk closer to the door, I try to stall, dragging my feet to a more human pace, but it still takes less than five seconds to close the gap between us and the door. What was originally such a beautiful sight is no longer such; it's the physical manifestation of a decision that I'm yet to make.

It's as though Myrnin senses my fear and apprehension for when we reach the portal we stop, and he removes his hand from mine, instead placing both of his upon my shoulders. "This need not be your decision now," he murmurs, but his eyes say otherwise. I know that no matter what he says, he means that this will show where my heart truly lies—and I know that this is the case.

Smiling, I nod and shut my eyes, allowing the tiredness to wash over me for a moment or two. Through the hazy fog of the sleep that wants to consume me, I see only one face: Myrnin. Whether that's because he's standing in front of me and I'm conscious of his every move, or it's because of some deeper meaning, I haven't a clue, but it makes my decision for me.

"If Bob has snuck into your bed again, I won't be happy because I'm planning on having a nap when we get back," I tell Myrnin, opening my eyes as I speak. The worried expression on his face fades away within a split-second, and I can't resist saying, "Were you really scared that I was going to go somewhere else—like Oliver's?" I can't say Shane's name, not now, not when merely thinking it sends a stab of guilt into my now immobile heart, so I think of the first male that both Myrnin and I know.

Myrnin snorts as he lets go of my shoulders and picks up my hand as easily as counting to three, the other reaching out to turn the knob of the door. "My dear, we both know that Oliver's taste is for blondes—something which, I regret to inform you, you are not."

I can't help but snort as we walk into the laboratory, before my attention is grasped by just how clear everything is. It was less obvious to me in a room I'm unfamiliar with…but here, in a place I spend an awful lot of time, I can tell. My vision in the darkness is better than before, and everything…everything has a focus that combined with the tiredness, is hurting my head.

"Would you like anything to eat, drink, draw, um, experiment on…?" Myrnin trails off, his tone nervous for potentially the first time since I met him; he's always been so confident, even in situations where he's completely blind. I realise that this, whatever we are, is new to him as well as to me, and therefore believe that this is the explanation for his attitude.

"Er, Myrnin, I just want to sleep," I remind him gently, and note that a flash of some crest-fallen expression crosses his face. "I'll be back soon…I just…what with everything that happened, and what I am…I just want to sleep." I garble on a bit, not sure that what I'm saying is logical, until Myrnin nods.

"You know where the bedroom is; I didn't touch anything since you left it," he says quietly, letting go of my hand and moving across the laboratory to his preferred bench. "I'll be here when you wake up—if you want me."

I pretend not to notice his last words and the tone in which he says them as I walk from the room, but inside, they break me into tiny pieces.

~x~

After a fitful sleep, I wake up what must be a few hours later, suddenly realising something: I won't ever be able to go out in the sun without it harming me again. It's more than slightly depressing to think that I never really appreciated the sun's rays, but now they've been taken from me forever…they're all I can think about.

Moments later, I realise that I have a more pressing issue to deal with: the fact that I have to officially decide whether I love Myrnin or Shane more. That I'm a vampire probably makes one of the options impossible for me to have—it still doesn't feel right to say that I am this, even though the extra teeth in my mouth make it rather obvious that I'm not human—but that doesn't mean that I should fall straight into the arms of the other…only if that's what I want will I do that.

I begin to think about the two men, and the first thought that comes into my head about Shane is his anti-vampire stance. I remember things he's said to Michael about how much he hates them, and how he's barely accepted Michael—and, at times, would still prefer his best friend dead than one of the walking dead.

Myrnin, transversely, is standing in his laboratory, completing some sort of experiment in my mind. He's smiling, and whilst I can see in his eyes that he's fighting the monster within, he doesn't seem dangerous. He isn't opposing anyone else's views, isn't condoning mass murder for no reason—he's just being Myrnin.

Whilst I think for another half an hour or so, the feeling in my gut that this is wrong to have to make a decision—and also that I've already made one. I knew my answer when I was dying and the only person who I thought of was Myrnin. I knew when my heart almost broke because I didn't think he loved me enough to save me.

I knew when I looked into his eyes and saw everything that could ever comfort me.

As I sit up in bed, confident in my decision being the right one for me, I realise something else: my friends—if you can call them that—were out looking for me with Myrnin, that much is obvious. But when he saved me, I sincerely doubt that he took time out of the whole saving-me thing to message them and let them know that he found me.

"Myrnin!" I shout down the hallway, flashing to my feet at a speed which disorientates me. "Myrnin, did you let Eve know that I'm safe?"

I appear in the laboratory about three metres from him, and notice that Myrnin is holding sodium very, very close to a pot of water—and he's distracted.

"Darn, I knew I had to talk to the Goth Girl for something!" he replies, letting go of the sodium as he clenches his hands together.

Naturally, the sodium falls into the water. Whether or not this is an indication of what's to come when I go visit my friends, something which has to happen now, I have no idea, but at least it's a pretty last scientific experiment of sorts if this is to be my last few hours.

"You're coming with me, Myrnin," I warn him, my tone dark as I close the gap between us. I take his arm without words, deciding to save anything we need to say until later, when everything has been sorted. "And if anyone throws anything at me for disappearing and not telling them where I went, you're protecting me from them."

I pretend not to hear, "I would protect you from anything," as we step through the portal, because I don't think that wanting to kiss Myrnin is the best sort of mood to be in whilst going to visit friends, one of whom is soon to be an officially ex-boyfriend.

Just review, please, especially if you favourite or alert? Thanks